I have spent money on Yelp. I have spent money on HomeAdvisor. And I have spent time on Facebook Marketplace. After running a moving company for years and trying every lead source that exists, I can tell you exactly what each one costs, what quality of leads you get, and which one actually puts money in your pocket.
This is not a theoretical comparison. These are real numbers from running an actual service business.
The Real Cost Per Lead on Each Platform
Let me start with the thing that matters most to a small business owner: what does each lead actually cost you?
Yelp charges in two ways. There is the free listing, which is basically useless because Yelp buries you behind paid competitors. Then there is Yelp Ads, where you pay per click. For service businesses, clicks run between $5 and $30 depending on your industry. A plumber in a major city might pay $25 per click. A cleaning company in a smaller market might pay $8. But here is the problem: not every click becomes a lead. You are looking at maybe a 10-15% conversion from click to actual contact. So your real cost per lead on Yelp is somewhere between $40 and $200.
HomeAdvisor (now Angi Leads) charges per lead directly. They send you a lead, you pay for it. Moving leads run $15-30. Cleaning leads run $10-25. Plumbing leads cost $20-50. Sounds reasonable until you realize that the same lead goes to three or four other businesses simultaneously. Your close rate on shared leads drops to maybe 15-20%. So your cost per acquired customer on HomeAdvisor is often $100-250.
Facebook Marketplace costs zero dollars per lead. You post a listing, someone messages you, that is a lead. Your only cost is the time it takes to post and reply. If you are doing it manually, maybe 15 minutes per listing. If you are using automation, even less. The math is simple: free leads with a time investment, versus paid leads that may or may not convert.
When I was spending $800 a month on HomeAdvisor for my moving company, I was getting about 40 leads and closing maybe 8 jobs. That is $100 per customer before I even loaded the truck. On Marketplace, I was getting 30-50 messages per week and closing 10-15 jobs with zero ad spend. The comparison was not even close.
Lead Quality: Who Is Actually Ready to Buy
Cost per lead means nothing if the leads are garbage. So let me break down what you actually get from each platform.
Yelp leads are generally high intent. Someone searching for "moving company near me" on Yelp is usually ready to hire. They have a problem right now and they want it solved. Yelp leads tend to convert at around 20-30% if you respond quickly. The downside is volume. Unless you are spending heavily on ads, Yelp does not generate enough leads to fill a schedule.
HomeAdvisor leads are mixed. Some people genuinely need a service provider today. Others filled out a form because they were curious about pricing for a project six months from now. And because the leads are shared, you are competing on speed. The business that calls back first usually wins, regardless of quality or pricing. I used to get HomeAdvisor leads at 2 PM on a Tuesday while I was on a job. By the time I called back at 4 PM, the customer had already booked with someone else. That is a $25 lead I paid for and got nothing from.
Facebook Marketplace leads are unique. These are people who saw your listing while browsing, thought "I need that," and messaged you directly. There is no form fill. There is no lead distribution system. It is one person reaching out to one business. The intent varies, but the exclusivity makes up for it. Nobody else got that lead. You have 100% of that person's attention, at least for the moment.
The quality difference shows up in conversion rates. My Marketplace leads converted at about 35-40% into booked jobs. My HomeAdvisor leads converted at 15-20%. Yelp was around 25%, but the volume was so low it barely mattered.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About
Every platform has costs that do not show up on the invoice.
Yelp's hidden cost is reputation management. Yelp's algorithm can bury positive reviews and surface negative ones. I have seen businesses with 50 five-star reviews get a "Not Recommended" filter that hides 30 of them. If you stop paying for ads, your listing mysteriously gets less visibility. There is a reason Yelp has been the subject of multiple lawsuits from business owners. You end up spending time and mental energy managing your Yelp presence instead of running your business.
HomeAdvisor's hidden cost is the annual membership fee on top of per-lead charges. That is $300-350 per year just to be on the platform, before you buy a single lead. They also auto-adjust your lead flow. I once got hit with $400 in leads in a single week because they "optimized" my account. Getting that reversed required three phone calls and a lot of frustration.
Facebook Marketplace's hidden cost is time. Responding to messages, reposting listings that expire, managing multiple listings across categories. This is the real tradeoff. You are not paying money, you are paying hours. A lot of the messages are also low-effort: "Is this available?" with no follow-up. You need a system for filtering serious buyers from tire-kickers.
This is exactly why I built Listaro. The time cost of Marketplace was the only thing holding it back from being the clear winner. When you automate the posting, the reposting, and the initial responses, you eliminate the one weakness Marketplace has compared to paid platforms.
Conversion Rate Comparison by Industry
Different industries see different results on each platform. Here is what I have seen and what other service business owners have shared with me.
Moving companies: Marketplace dominates. People looking for movers are already browsing Marketplace for furniture, so seeing a moving service listing feels natural. I wrote about this extensively in my moving company growth story. HomeAdvisor is decent for moving leads but expensive. Yelp is surprisingly weak for movers because people tend to search Google before Yelp for time-sensitive services.
Cleaning companies: All three platforms produce results, but Marketplace has the best cost-to-conversion ratio. A cleaning company I know was spending $1,200 a month on HomeAdvisor and getting 50 leads. They switched to heavy Marketplace posting and got 60+ leads per week at zero cost. Their story is similar to the cleaning company getting 50 leads per week that I wrote about before.
Plumbers and electricians: Yelp and HomeAdvisor are stronger here because people search by trade when they have an emergency. "I need a plumber now" is more likely to happen on Yelp or Google than on Marketplace. But for non-emergency work, like a bathroom remodel or panel upgrade, Marketplace performs well. The plumbing marketing guide covers this in more detail.
Lawn care and landscaping: Marketplace wins by a mile. The visual nature of lawn care listings performs incredibly well on a platform designed for browsing photos. HomeAdvisor leads for lawn care tend to be price shoppers. Yelp barely registers for this category.
Handyman services: Marketplace is strong because the price points are lower and people are comfortable hiring from a Marketplace listing for smaller jobs. HomeAdvisor charges $15-20 per handyman lead, which eats your margin on a $150 job.
The Speed Factor and Why It Changes Everything
On HomeAdvisor, the business that responds to a lead within 5 minutes wins the job about 50% of the time. After 30 minutes, your chances drop to under 10%. This creates an exhausting dynamic where you are basically chained to your phone waiting for lead notifications.
On Yelp, response time matters but less aggressively. People who search on Yelp often contact two or three businesses and compare. You have a slightly longer window.
On Facebook Marketplace, response time is critical but the dynamic is different. When someone messages you on Marketplace, Facebook actually shows the buyer your typical response time. If your badge says "Usually responds within an hour," that sets an expectation. If it says "Usually responds within minutes," you get more messages. I covered this in detail in my response speed article.
The advantage of Marketplace is that you can set up automated responses. When someone messages about your listing, they can get an immediate reply with your availability and pricing. That buys you time without losing the lead. On HomeAdvisor, you are competing against three other businesses who all got the same notification at the same time.
Long-Term Business Building: Which Platform Creates Real Value
Here is something most comparisons miss. Lead platforms like HomeAdvisor and Yelp create zero long-term value for your business. The moment you stop paying, the leads stop. You are renting attention.
Facebook Marketplace is different. Every interaction on Marketplace builds your Facebook presence. Every five-star review from a Marketplace customer shows up on your Facebook page. Every satisfied customer who shares your listing extends your reach. Over time, you build an organic presence that compounds.
I have seen this with my own moving company. After a year of consistent Marketplace posting, people started messaging me saying "I saw your listing but I also saw you helped my friend last month." That is word-of-mouth amplified by a platform. Yelp cannot do that. HomeAdvisor definitely cannot do that.
Building social proof from Marketplace customers creates a flywheel. More reviews lead to more trust, which leads to more bookings, which leads to more reviews. HomeAdvisor reviews stay on HomeAdvisor. Yelp reviews stay on Yelp. Facebook reviews follow you everywhere your customers are.
When to Use Each Platform (The Honest Answer)
I am not going to tell you Marketplace is perfect for every situation. Here is my honest breakdown of when each platform makes sense.
Use Yelp if you are in a high-ticket service industry (HVAC, roofing, remodeling) in a major metro area where Yelp usage is high. The cost per lead is brutal but the lead quality can justify it for $5,000+ jobs. Just set a strict monthly budget and watch it closely.
Use HomeAdvisor/Angi if you are brand new and need leads immediately while you build other channels. It is pay-to-play but it works in the short term. Treat it as a bridge, not a foundation. The moment you have organic lead flow from other sources, scale back.
Use Facebook Marketplace if you want sustainable, low-cost lead generation that builds over time. It works for almost every service industry, in almost every market size. The only requirement is consistency. You need to post regularly, respond quickly, and maintain your listings.
The smart play is to start with Marketplace as your primary channel, use HomeAdvisor sparingly for immediate lead flow if needed, and build your Yelp profile organically through great service rather than paid ads.
The Numbers That Convinced Me to Go All-In on Marketplace
Here is my actual quarterly comparison from when I was running all three platforms simultaneously.
Yelp: $600 spent, 18 leads, 5 booked jobs, $120 cost per customer. HomeAdvisor: $900 spent, 35 leads, 7 booked jobs, $128 cost per customer. Facebook Marketplace: $0 spent (plus time), 180+ leads, 45 booked jobs, effectively $0 cost per customer.
The time I spent on Marketplace was about 5-6 hours per week doing manual posting and responding. At my billing rate, that is maybe $200 worth of time. So even if you value the time cost, Marketplace was still under $5 per customer compared to $120+ on the paid platforms.
After seeing those numbers for three consecutive quarters, I cancelled Yelp ads and HomeAdvisor. I focused entirely on Marketplace and built systems to reduce the time investment. That is the origin story of Listaro, which now handles the posting, reposting, and response management that used to eat those 5-6 hours per week.
If you are still splitting your budget across Yelp, HomeAdvisor, and hoping for the best, try going hard on Marketplace for 30 days. Track every lead and every dollar. I think the numbers will speak for themselves.
Listaro automates the entire Marketplace workflow so you get the lead quality of a free platform with the convenience of a paid one. No per-lead fees, no shared leads, no monthly minimums. Just consistent visibility where your customers are already browsing.